Adding social links to emails: what and where?

One of the ways to combine the email and Web 2.0 worlds is to encourage subscribers to redistribute email content via social sites (like Facebook or Digg), as discussed recently in this post and Loren McDonald's thoughtful article.

This makes intrinsic sense, but (as so often) it's easier to say what we should do than to say how we should do it.

If you put links to social sites in your email, which sites/tools do you link to? And where do you put them?

Which social links do you feature?

Every extra link in an email or web page is another distraction from the core message and another piece of screen real estate occupied. So the link has to justify its existence.

There are hundreds of websites built to allow users to repost content for others to find. Hundreds. Which ones deserve the space?

You're probably most interested in getting people to share content on social news sites, social bookmarking sites and, particularly, social networks. Here some factors to bear in mind when choosing the right ones to feature...

1. What sites are most popular?

In the absence of official statistics, only educated guesses are possible on the reach of different sites. Even published account numbers can be misleading since popularity is as much about user activity as about registered users.

Some helpful resources and suggestions:

• SEOmoz has a nice overview of the "best" Web 2.0 sites in numerous categories, which you might use as a proxy for popularity.
• In terms of social networks, comScore published recent figures suggesting Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 as the three most popular.
• Wikipedia also has a list of social network sites, together with user estimates (most of which are based on Alexa, which I would find hard to recommend for such purposes).
• The same site has a list of social bookmarking sites, of which the two biggest are (my opinion) Delicious and StumbleUpon.
• Top social news sites (again, my opinion) include Slashdot (especially IT stuff), Fark, Digg and reddit.

2. What's realistic?

Ask yourself if the material you are suggesting people share elsewhere is truly suited to each potential venue.

Digg is a hugely popular social news site which tends to get included automatically in any collection of "share this" links. But is your content really likely to warrant attention from Digg users? Probably not.

I've written over 2000 blog posts, many of which have received much positive coverage from those in the email marketing space. Total number of posts that ever got significant coverage on Digg? One. And it wasn't even about email marketing.

Would it make more sense to replace Digg links with a smaller social news site better targeted to your niche?

3. What suits my audience and topic?

According to comScore, the most popular social network in France is the Skyrock Network. More popular than Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 combined.

If you know your audience, you'll know which sites they use. If you're selling financial software systems to CFOs, do you really want MySpace links in your emails?

A similar point applies to the nature of the content/offer you want shared.

Want to spread a recipe? Consider Im Cooked.

Want to spread a search marketing article? Consider Sphinn.

Want to spread news of your latest stroller? Consider MothersClick.

Where do you put the links?

Even when you know which "share this on..." links to use, where do you put them? I've seen them everywhere but in the subject line.

Do you put them in the email or on your landing pages? In both? Top of the email? Bottom? Next to the content? Next to each article snippet?

How prominent do you make the links compared to your main links? How many "share this" links do you include? Do you use text-only links or funky little graphics like those you often see under blog posts (or both)?

And what language do you use? "Share this at Facebook," "Post at Facebook," "Facebook" etc. etc.?

Like any call to action, this is something you're going to have to test. Unless anybody has some experience they'd like to share in the comments?

An alternative of course is to have a single "share this with others" link in your email which takes people to a landing page containing many more social site options than you'd put in your email.

You can also put your "forward to a friend" email tools in there as well, or any other links and copy encouraging word of mouth.

This is all largely new territory for the email marketing world. What say you?

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